The suspect in the 1997 murder of a woman and her daughter whose bodies were found near Gilgo Beach appeared before a judge in Mineola on Thursday morning.

Andrew Dykes, 66, of Florida, pleaded not guilty to the killing of Tanya Denise Jackson, 26. Prosecutors do not yet have evidence to charge Dykes with the daughter's killing, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said.

"Tanya was the victim of a horrifying and vile act of violence by a person, maybe the only person, she thought she could trust," Donnelly said. 

Dykes was arrested last week at his home and extradited to Nassau County on Wednesday. He is due back in court on Jan. 16.

Jackson was not the victim of a serial killer, DA says

Investigators said Dykes' DNA matched evidence found on Jackson's body, adding they collected a sample from him from a straw he threw in the garbage in Tampa.

"Tanya Jackson, known from the time of her death until earlier this year as 'Peaches,' was not the victim of a serial killer. We allege she was the victim of a man that she loved," Donnelly said.

"The technology used to reach a conclusion that he may be involved in this case, I believe, is the newer technology and it's very subject to scrutiny and challenge of New York state," defense attorney Joseph Lo Piccolo said. 

"With the proper experts and witnesses, it is defensible and we will be pursing it 100%," Lo Piccolo added.

Dykes, a retired Army veteran, is being held without bail.

"He's a father. He led a life that many would respect in law enforcement, in the military," Lo Piccolo said. 

The disappearance of Tanya Jackson

Jackson was also a military veteran and had a child, Tatiana Marie Jackson, with Dykes. Dykes was married to another woman at the time, prosecutors said. Dykes was listed as her father on her birth certificate.

Dykes had been a military instructor specializing in anatomy, which means he knew how to dismember Jackson's body, prosecutors Claimed. Her decapitated torso was found in 1997, dumped in Hempstead Lake Park, with the only identifiable mark being a tattoo of a peach. Investigators nicknamed her "Peaches" and called her daughter "Baby Doe."

"It's a wasteland out there. It's probably a good place to drop a body," Donnelly said.

Retired Nassau County homicide Det. William Brosnan was on the case for years, and said he tried to track down the unique tattoo and would never give up on a cold case.

"It was something I couldn't let go, not if you have a heart," Brosnan said.

Jackson's family was left baffled by her disappearance.

"I'm sorry that this animal got away with what he got away with instead of being a man and owning up to what he did years ago in fathering that child and ran away from it," Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said.

Another man, Rex Heuermann, has been charged in seven of the Gilgo Beach killings. Heuermann, a Long Island architect, has maintained his innocence.

There is no apparent link between Dykes and Heuermann.